


Come around

by perryvic, Zaganthi (Caffiends)



Category: Constantine (2005)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-12
Updated: 2011-12-12
Packaged: 2017-10-27 05:47:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/292298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perryvic/pseuds/perryvic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffiends/pseuds/Zaganthi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He wanted to be John. He'd had maybe a little luck on his soul, but mostly it was that raw unruined naiveté.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come around

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amethyst Shard (AmethystShard)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmethystShard/gifts).



> Yuletide Treat

Loss haunted him.

It always had. Just because he loved someone didn’t mean he could keep it safe. Nine times out of nine, it meant that whoever he loved was going to *be* lost. Even casual interactions were risky, though he was mostly sure that Gabriel had been insane long before he’d ever crossed paths with that particular member of the holy Host.

Losing Chas though.... he'd been lulled into a certain complacency. Chas had survived, longer and longer seemingly indestructible in his sheer naive eagerness. It had surprised him more than he would have believed.

He wanted to be John. He'd had maybe a little luck on his soul, but mostly it was that raw unruined naiveté. He supposed he'd been most surprised that Chas hadn't died senselessly, that he'd at least been fighting.

That was probably his influence, and shit, there might have been a time when he would have been grudgingly proud, but his own luck was fucked up and tainted everything and everyone around him.

No reason to not have a cigarette then.

Except. He'd just beat lung cancer. The hard way, because it didn't get much harder than ol' Nick ripping them out of your chest.

There was always the air outside for a little pollution, free of charge, so he opened his office window.

He wasn't sure what to do now. Part of him wanted a direction, part of him wanted to score some payback, but Gabriel was already paying one way or another and that left him where? Sitting in a dingy office, aimless, pondering whether to start drinking at 9 in the morning.

And then the Gates on his arms started to prickle with that feeling that there was an entity close by.  
That was what he got for opening a window. Windows were doors in more ways than the standard breaking and entering way. John left it open, let the humid night air waft in while he turned to put his back to the wall. Ready to use that window as a door, just in case he had to.

"Hey boss."

The voice was startlingly familiar, as was the face and hesitant grin that appeared from the shadows.

He didn't move for a long moment, three, four heartbeats, while he wondered if it was a shape-shifter or a ghost come back to get him, or... Or if it had been malicious, he would've already been dead. Twice over.

"Chas?"

"Pretty much," Chas stepped forward and his reason for lurking became clear. Wings. Big fucking angel wings, looking ruffled.

They were never white like in the pictures. Not really. The ones whose wings were white were pure, full host, not half, and the rest of them probably used spells, glamors or good old bleach. Chas's looked natural, white and grey mottled together, but John didn't reach out to touch them even if he wanted to. Didn't do much more than stare, at the wings, at Chas. "Shouldn't you be in heaven?"

"Hey, you couldn't even get me to stay in the car, and you're a lot more scary than they are," Chas replied trying to sit on the edge of the desk. "No one seemed to really cope with the fact that I don't have a compulsion to obey anyone."

"They kicked you out?" John moved in to steady his desk lamp as a wing edge smushed slowly into it, because that was the only thing he could think to say, like it was normal and casual and Chas was just asking to crash on his sofa for a night.

"More a case of I wandered out the door," Chas smirked. "I'm too low on the ladder for anyone to give a toss y'know?. So..you need a driver?"

God.

John exhaled, tried to not let it sound as shakey as it felt coming out of his chest. "Jesus, you're supposed to be fucking dead. That psychotic angel killed you."

"Pretty much why I got my wings," Chas answered. "And you know what? I kinda figured that if there was any poor bastard who needed a half assed guardian angel it would be you."

Half-assed was right. He was standing too close to Chas, sliding the lamp into something like a safer position, trying to not feel the energy that was coming off of him. “I could use a full assed guardian angel, if you know someone who’s offering. I…”

Chas leaned forward and it was that same excitable grin. "Unless you've found someone to replace me already?"

He couldn’t hold back the snort he gave. “Are you kidding? No one sane’d volunteer.”

"So you're up for an angel with a dubious sense of sanity?" Chas replied. "I thought you'd seen me rise anyway. Lifted from Perdition they call it. Fancy way of saying things."

“Well, you’d have to be insane to come back down here. With everything that happened, with everything…” That could happen again. Except that Chas had wings, wings and John didn’t know what else. Superhuman strength. Heat. Warmth when he leaned in and almost kissed him.

There is was, that look in his eyes. Totally inappropriate hero-worship. At least he had thought it was blind hero-worship but perhaps it had been something else all along. Something a little more base than Hero worship, something a little more frightening to feel coming off of an angel, even if Chas still looked like Chas, without the goofy hat. “I’m not barking up the wrong tree, am I?”

"No." Chas' smile was dazzling and he looked like an angel should, lit up with something in his face rather than the ass-holish arrogance of the others. "You have the Sight for the hidden Constantine, but you never could see what was in plain sight could you?"

“Some things, you’re just never sure about.” But now, now he was sure, close enough to Chas that it just took a lean to let John press his lips lightly against Chas. He’d never really been picky about lovers, as long as they weren’t demons.

Chas smiled into the kiss a little hesitant and shy as he responded. "Took you long enough Boss."

"I'm no rocket scientist." He laughed, because he wasn't sure what came next. Wasn't sure what he was going to do, except stop trying to stop Chas from learning everything John knew. It hadn't kept him safe before and it was too late to try to keep him safe now.

But maybe it might be enough to just keep him. That was all he could hope for with his luck.


End file.
